[Mapserver-users] Problems with umlauts in labels

[Toomas Aas]

Hello!

A couple of days ago, some developers who are writing an application
in PHP/Mapscript (3.6.6) on our server told me that after they returned from
vacation they discovered that labels in their application no longer 
display umlauts. It had worked fine when they went to vacation.

The only thing I had done with the server while they were away was upgrading
PHP from 4.2.3 to 4.3.3. I didn't rebuild the php_mapscript.so module at that 
time, since in brief (too brief I guess) testing the application "seemed" 
unaffected by the PHP upgrade.

The first thing I tried was rebuilding PHP/Mapscript but that didn't help.

What did help was rebuilding PHP using external GD library. As you may
know, PHP includes its own "bundled" GD library, but it can also use external GD.

My server is running FreeBSD and it seems that when building PHP from FreeBSD
ports the build process now chooses to use bundled GD, whereas earlier it
used external GD. Hence my problem (and the workaround).

OK, so I got it working now, but I'm sure it will bite me again next time I
upgrade PHP. I would like to find a more permanent fix. If someone is using 
PHP/Mapscript 3.6.6 and PHP 4.3.x with bundled GD library, are you able to 
display umlauts in labels? Just trying to make sure if the problem is in my 
server or somewhere else.

--
Toomas Aas | toomas.aas at raad.tartu.ee | http://www.raad.tartu.ee/~toomas/
* Kindred: Fear that relatives are coming to stay.